ABSTRACT
Honey bees reproduce by colony fission, or swarming. The swarming process begins when worker bees initiate queen rearing in response to a suite of demographic factors within the colony, a reduction in the effectiveness of queen pheromones that inhibit worker reproduction, successful foraging, and other factors. Several aspects of Africanized bee biology appear to be very different from the attributes of European honey bees. Polygyny during swarming and of the parental colony before queen mating could provide immunity from queen loss, as apparently occurs in several North African races of honey bees. However, polygynous afterswarms of Africanized bees at the time of issuance are relatively uncommon. Honey bee colonies are affected by predation, loss of queens following swarming, and absconding. When swarming has been completed, Africanized bee colonies quickly return to a monogynous condition prior to mating by the new resident queen.
